What if....

“What are you?”

Charlie stopped walking and turned, surprised.

Princess Celestia was eye to eye with Charlie. “Sorry for being so direct, but I honestly don’t know what or who you are.”

“Sorry, I don’t get that often, your majesty. I am Charles and I am of a race named humanity.”

“Well, where is the rest of humanity. You and him,” She pointed with a hoof to Heinrich. “are the only ones my sister and I have seen.”

Charlie turned away from the princess. “Come on, I will tell you while we walk.”

Princess Celestia walked up next to Charlie with the guards following.

“Humanity,” Charlie began. “a race of bipedal creatures. They are capable of so much hatred. It caused a war between the great nations. It was one of these nations that I was born into, the Middle Kingdom. I was born when the Southern Kingdom seceded from the Middle Kingdom, and because of that, I was blamed for the secession and I was tossed aside like I was nothing. I was eventually picked up by my future mentor, and I was brought into royalty.”

The princess’s curiosity was piqued by his words.

“Oh, and what is your title Charles.”

Charlie smiled. “I was, in fact, adopted by my mentor and the prince himself. The prince never had a son and my mentor refused the crown so I was next in line for the title Prince of the Middle Kingdom,” Charlie suddenly dropped his smile and his mood became somber. “but it is an empty title now, for there are no more humans because of The Purge, and, I really don’t deserve it.”

“What is the purge?” Princess Celestia asked.

“I believe it was a great accident.” Heinrich began to yell something, but it was muffled.

“No Heinrich, it wasn’t the North’s fault… anyways. It was the purge of humanity from existence, and it was all due to the hatred in humanity.”

Princess Celestia suddenly stopped. Charlie turned back, but noticed that she was looking forward. He also turned forward and saw what she was looking at.

“Ah, we’re here.” His mood brightened and he looked back to Celestia. “Princess Celestia, would you like to see the purge of Heinrich out of this world.” The princess, however, didn’t seem to be paying any attention to him. Her attention was focused on something far right of the door.

“Charles, may I ask you something.”

Charlie turned his head and saw that the princess was looking at two… plants. One was a tree, tall and dead; the other was a bush, green and full of fruits.

“Go ahead your majesty.”

The princess never took of her attention off the plants when she once again addressed Charlie.

“Where those there earlier?”

Charlie observed the plants with the princess, yet nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary about them, besides the fact that they weren’t there earlier.

“No your majesty, they were never there when I left the tower.”

Princess Celestia finally pulled her attention off the two plants and turned to Charlie.

“You go ahead Charles, I will stay out here.” The princess turned around and looked at one of the unicorn guards.

“I will, however, be sending Swift Sword with you to oversee this.”

Charlie nodded. “Alright your majesty.”

The guard named Swift Sword ran up to Charlie.

“Shall we do this quickly?”

“Don’t worry Swift Sword, this won’t take long.”

Charlie opened the door and walked in with Swift Sword following suite. They walked in silence for a few seconds, but Swift Sword wasn’t content with walking in silence.

“Sir,” Charlie turned his head slightly. “Are you really a prince?”

“Yes Mr. Swift. May I call you that?” Swift Sword nodded.

“I am a prince, but as I mentioned earlier, it is an empty title.”

Swift once again spoke up.

“But why sir, you are a prince of your people. You deserve to be called as such.”

Charlie chuckled. “You really are good in the ways of flattery aren’t you.”

Swift smiled despite the fact that Charlie wasn’t looking. “Yes, but it works better with the mares.”

They both began to laugh, but it lasted for a short time, for a light began to show at the end of the tunnel.

“Oh, we’re almost there. Come on Swift, let’s pick up the pace.” They walked the rest of the tunnel in silence, but once they reached the door, Charlie spoke up.

“I think you should shield your eyes Swift.”

Charlie opened the door and a sudden bright light shown through. Charlie and Swift, both shielding their eyes, walked in. Once Swift removed his forearm from his eyes, he got himself quite a view.

“Wow.” He said with a wide mouth. “What is this?”

“This is the Tower of the Weather. It was used for weather…” Charlie paused. “well, technically it was never used.”

“Wait, so humans also controlled the weather.”

Charlie shook his head. “Well, no. This tower acted as an emergency source of rain, should there have ever been a drought,” Charlie pointed at the crystal near the middle. “and that is its power source.”

Swift Sword trotted over to where Charlie pointed and gazed upon the crystal in awe. It was glowing blue, but despite being dull, the light entranced him.

“Is it spinning?”

“Yes it is, just like the one downstairs.”

Swift turned and looked at Charlie with pleading eyes. “Can I have it?”

Charlie laughed. “Oh, I don’t know about that.”

“Well, you really don’t need any use for it. It just sits there, wasting space.”

Charlie walked over to Swift. He put Heinrich down next to the crystal. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. My mentor told me it was unstable.”

Swift looked at the crystal one more time, and then sighed.

“Oh, alright, you can keep it.”

“Thank you Swift.” Charlie looked down at Heinrich, who was glaring at him back. “Now it’s time to get on to more pressing matters.” Charlie reached for the cloth on Heinrich’s mouth.

“Wait!” Swift shouted. Charlie stopped a finger short of the cloth and pulled back.

“What is a matter Swift?”

“I have one more question.”

Charlie crossed his arms. “Go ahead Swift.”

Swift looked down at Heinrich and pointed at him with a hoof.

“Why does he look like you?”

Charlie looked down to Heinrich.

“He is me, but he isn’t. It’s a long story; I will have to tell you later, maybe when we get back to town.”

Swift nodded, so Charlie reached down and pulled the gag off Heinrich.

“Tsk Tsk unicorn, a guard vould never speak out of line…”

Charlie shook his head and placed a hand on his forehead. Swift Sword, however, took offense.

“Silence criminal, do not question my abilities as a guard!”

“Don’t worry about him Swift, he’s just being mean.”

Swift Sword nodded, so Charlie turned his attention towards Heinrich.

“Why did you do it Heinrich? You could have been accepted into society.”

Heinrich laughed. “Vhy, you ask. He he, do you even know me?”

“No, I don’t know you completely, I only know of your goals.”

“Vell, then you should know that I am the leader of the glorious O.F.E, and our goal is to obtain immortality in any vay possible. This Princess Celestia had immortality, so I had to have it.”

“She also controls the sun.” Swift Sword added with pride.

A small fire suddenly appeared in Heinrich’s eyes, and he seemed to be getting very angry.

“SHE VHAT!!!!” Almost immediately a slew of furious rants bombarded Charlie and Swift. They placed their hands/hooves on their ears to shut out the sound. Thankfully for Charlie and Swift the rants didn’t last long.

“Is that all?” Charlie asked once the ranting stopped.

“Yes.”

“Sir, how did you not notice earlier that he was this evil spy?” Swift suddenly asked. Charlie looked at Swift and placed a hand under his chin.

“I saw the signs, but I never thought of it completely.”

“He never thought of it because he is an idiot.” Heinrich suddenly said with spite. Charlie shook his head, but then he reached for Heinrich’s head.

“It’s time to go now Heinrich… I’m sorry.”

Heinrich laughed. “I’m not. Now you better untie me, you know how this process goes.”

Charlie shook his head. “I don’t think so, you will try to escape. That’s the last thing I want.”

“Oh, but you wouldn’t want me to suffer would you?”

“Wait!” Swift interrupted. Charlie looked down at Swift, his hand still on Heinrich’s head.

“What does he mean by suffer?”

“Oh that.” Charlie took his hand off Heinrich’s head.

“It’s something my mentor told me when he had shown me the crystal. He told me that these crystals not only powered by magic, but also by souls. He told me never to use souls, but if it was an emergency, then he told me to place the soon to be departed’s hands on the crystal. He also said that placing the head was a very bad experience for the person.”

“Don’t worry sir, I won’t let him escape. You can place his hands on the crystal now.”

“How sveet, the guard cares for my vellbeing.” Heinrich said in a low tone.

Charlie shot a glare at Heinrich, but then turned back to Swift.

“I’m sorry Swift, but we can’t risk losing him.”

Swift nodded, so Charlie once again placed his hand on Heinrich’s head. He pushed his head towards the crystal. He was surprised, thought, because Heinrich didn’t seem to be giving any resistance. He also seemed to be smiling.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Oh, because you are helping me with my plan, the main reason why I went to the capital of your accursed nation in the first place!”

Charlie let go of Heinrich’s head, but it was a wrong move.

“Fool.”

Heinrich suddenly swung his head and hit the crystal. It fell off the pedestal and crashed on the ground.

“NOOO!! Do realize what you have done!”

“What! What did he do sir?!”

“He destroyed the crystal and now the one downstairs is going to explode!”

“…….”

“I don’t wanna die sir…”

“Don’t worry Swift, it’ll be alright.”

“….. can you give me a hug?”

“...yes Swift.”

“Hah! Veaklings.”

“Shut up!”

Princess Celestia stood outside, her attention still on the trees.

One of the guards spoke up.

“Uh, your majesty, I don’t think those trees are going to go anywhere.”

The princess never took her attention off the trees when she addressed the guard.

“No, but something seems different about them.” The guards looked at each other, confused. Another guard, a different one this time, spoke up.

“Your majesty…” He suddenly stopped when the ground began to shake. The guards immediately took action and surrounded the princess.

“Hold on your majesty, we have to get you out of here.”

“I think Charles accomplished his…”

A sudden bright light flashed in front of her.

Rainbow Dash sat with her other friends next to Twilight, waiting for her to get up. She would usually get impatient for sitting around too long, but this was one of her best friends. She could wait days if she had to.

“Princess Celestia has been gone for a while. Do you think that she’s okay?” She heard one of the guards ask.

“Yes, I think she’s fine.” Another guard responded. “Besides, Swift Sword went with them. He’s one of the fastest swordsponies around.”

“Yeah, but one of the most immature too.”

The guards began laughing. Their laughing was short, however.

“Hey did you feel that?”

“Yeah it felt like the ground was shaking.”

Suddenly, a bright flash pierced the sky. Almost immediately the guards jumped into action.

“That was where the princess was!”

Shining armor got up from next to them. Rainbow watched him run over to the guards and call out to them.

“We need to get to the princess immediately.” All the guards saluted. They all mobilized and ran in the direction of the flash. Shining armor turned around and faced the group.

“You wait here with Twilight, I’ll be back soon.”

Rainbow Dash got up, however, and jumped into the sky.

“I need to see what happened too.” She turned towards the group as well. “I’ll be right back.” She took off in the direction of the flash as fast as she could.

Princess Celestia stood calm, with her eyes closed, despite what was happening in front of her. In front of her was a swirling blue mass of energy. She opened her eyes and observed the mass of energy.

It is expanding, something that worries me.

She heard a sound, a familiar sound, in the air over the loud hum of the energy ball. She turned her head and noticed Rainbow Dash flying towards her. She landed next to the princess and immediately yelled out a question.

“Were those your guards, running?”

“Yes,” Celestia said in a raised voice. “I sent them to form a perimeter around this area. No civilians must get too close to this.”

“What is it?”

“It is an energy sphere. It can be very destructive if it is not controlled, and in this case it is not controlled.” Celestia responded.

Rainbow Dash down at the sphere, then a thought immediately came to her mind. She voiced it out with worry.

“Wait, wasn’t Charles in there.”

Princess Celestia nodded, and then looked down to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow saw sadness in her eyes.

“And one of my guards. It is a saddening loss for everyone.”

Rainbow Dash dropped her head, but raised it in determination.

“Princess, we have to stop it before it hurts anypony else!”

The princess shook her head.

“I admire your confidence my little pony, but I’m afraid the only one who can stop it is me.”

Once the princess said this she jumped into the air and pumped her wings. Once she got to a certain height, she looked down and shot a beam of yellow magic into the sphere. She kept a steady stream of energy into it as it appeared to get smaller. Eventually it dropped to a small size, so Princess Celestia stopped the magic beam and flew down next to Rainbow Dash.

“Now we must collect it.” Princess Celestia once again flew up into the air and flew down into the crater, with Rainbow Dash following.

Once they reached the sphere, Princess Celestia turned her head to Rainbow Dash.

“This would have been a great lesson for Twilight, but I can tell you…”

A flash suddenly blinded both the ponies, and a loud boom shook the entire area. A large vertical shockwave erupted from the sphere and branched out, hitting part of Ponyville and Canterlot. It was harmless, though, and passed right through the buildings.

Next to the crater, a shimmering ball appeared from the smoke. The ball soon became transparent, and it disappeared. It revealed two ponies, one of them calm and the other shaken up.

“Are you alright Rainbow Dash?” Princess Celestia asked Rainbow, who had her eyes closed. She slowly opened her eyes, but when she did, she noticed that she was on the ground.

“Huh, what happened?” She looked up at Celestia. “Am I dead?”

Celestia smiled. “No Rainbow Dash, your fine.”

“Oh…. So what happened?”

“The sphere exploded, but I enveloped us in a shield, so we were fine.”

Rainbow Dash blushed and looked away in embarrassment, but as soon as it subsided, she looked up at the princess.

“Thank you princess.”

“You’re very welcome Rainbow Dash.”

Yells could be heard in the distance. Both mares looked up and saw the guards and Shining Armor running towards them.

“Princess Luna and the guards are not going to be happy when I tell them this.” Princess Celestia said. Rainbow Dash giggled as they walked over to the guards.